17,000 PG&E customers lose power throughout Bay Area

In this Nov. 26, 2018, file photo, a PG&E worker repairs a power line in fire-ravaged Paradise (Butte County) in November. The utility is cutting off power to areas of Northern California at risk as a precaution.

In this Nov. 26, 2018, file photo, a PG&E worker repairs a power line in fire-ravaged Paradise (Butte County) in November. The utility is cutting off power to areas of Northern California at risk as a precaution.

It’s unclear what caused the outages, but officials said PG&E crews are reporting an “increase in heat-related outages” in the Bay Area, specifically in the East Bay.

“We want to thank our customers for their patience during this heat wave as our crews worked safely and as quickly as possible in extremely hot weather conditions to restore power to our customers,” officials said.

Utility officials responded to an outage in Berkeley just after 4 p.m. and learned it affected customers in Berkeley and Oakland, PG&E officials said in a statement.

“Crews are assessing the situation and working to restore power safely and as quickly as possible,” PG&E officials said. “The safety of our customers and the communities that we serve is PG&E’s primary responsibility.”

As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, PG&E recorded the following number of customers impacted: